Search Results for: blog is apple pie a health food

Fall Fun with Apples

Tis the season for apple overload. My family went bananas at a local u-pick apple orchard last month. We hauled home more than 20 pounds of the healthy fruit and still have more than a dozen individual apples left. They won’t be good for much longer, which is why I have been desperately looking for ways (besides making yet another pie) to make the most of the shiny orbs. Fortunately, there is no shortage of ideas floating around cyberspace. I tested a few of the more unique options from Women’s Day and several other reputable sites, then narrowed down my … Continue reading →

Playing With Food

(Want fries with that?) Santa brought this McDonald’s Drive-Thru playset to my daughter a couple of Christmases ago. So now, whenever I get a hankering for Ronald’s fries, all I have to do is belly up to the plastic window and yell for the short order cook. Or, in my case, the short cook. The interactive toy has yielded hours of fun for our family, and while my daughter is still nearly a decade away from officially working under the real Golden Arches, the kid can flip a burger and swirl a McFlurry better some of Mickey D’s paid employees. … Continue reading →

Apple Picking: Know Before You Go

U-pick apple orchards are ideal settings for a weekend of fun with the entire family. My young daughter looks forward to our annual trip each fall. She gets to ride a tractor, hand-pick her favorite fruit, scurry around in a corn maze, pet some farm animals, and stuff her face with caramel apples, apple muffins and apple pie. Yes, it’s fall family fun at its finest, if you go in prepared, and I’m not talking about prepping to schlepp 20 pounds of apples and a whiny 30-pound kid back to the pay stations. I’m talking about crunching numbers before you … Continue reading →

Food For Thought

Packing school lunches, worst mom job EVER, in my opinion. I’ve been scarred after just a single year on the job. So yeah, me and school lunches—-packed or served-—far from friends. And just as I was reveling in the freedom from prepping and packing that summer affords me I see the Today show’s piece on kids, food poisoning and brown bag school lunches. Greeeeaaaat! Turns out that parents, who try so hard to pack healthy school lunches, are actually making their kids sick. According to new research published in the Journal of Pediatrics, only one measly percent of home lunches … Continue reading →

Tricking Kids Into Eating Healthy

Often adults don’t give kids credit for being the intelligent little munchkins that they are. Then, out comes a study that makes you go hmmm… or DUH!… depending on how well you know kids. A few years ago researchers at the Sesame Workshop gathered a group of preschoolers to see if their taste buds could be manipulated by a bunch of sneaky grown ups. As part of the study the kids were first asked to choose between a mouthwatering chocolate bar or some pretty broccoli fresh from the garden. The results: 78% of the kids chose the candy bar while … Continue reading →

Whole vs Pre-Sliced Apples

Recently tedgar wrote about her family’s trip to the pumpkin patch and her look at what money is worth. Our time is worth something. Our efforts are worth something. We all have a threshold of what we are willing to spend. It is a lot cheaper to buy a bag of whole apples at the store and cut them up myself when I get home. It is easier, faster, and more convenient to buy a bag of pre-cut apples. The pre-cut apples are more expensive, but the toddler is more likely to eat them than the apples I cut myself … Continue reading →

Is Apple Pie a Health Food?

Yesterday my family went to the apple orchard. We go up to the apple orchard every year. I find it to be one of my favorite fall places to visit. The colors of the trees are beautiful the smell of the apples on the trees is so tempting. Letting the kids run around and pick apples, pose by pumpkins and measure sunflowers is just part of the fun we have spending the afternoon at the orchard. After all the running around we stop by the store for cider slush. This is a great treat since there is no additional sugar … Continue reading →

Healthy Halloween: Healthy Handouts

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. It’s the dressing up, mostly… the chance to be someone or something else for a day! I don’t mind the candy, either. But the candy is definitely a mixed blessing. Halloween can be a BIG test of your willpower and diet abilities! So what are some healthy alternatives? Fruit. Apples and oranges are usually easily found during the fall months — and they’re good for you! Handing out fruit might not make you very popular with the kids… but the parents might appreciate the healthy snack appearing in the goodie bags. 100 calorie … Continue reading →

McDonald’s: Foods Less Than 300 Calories

We all know that fast foods are not a good thing to have especially if you are trying to lose weight. When I totally cut out fast foods a few years back the weight dropped off me a whole lot faster. Since that time I have eased up on myself a bit and allowed some fast foods back into my life. However, I have a rule for myself that only certain things are allowed. The rule for me is that the item has to be less than 300 calories or I cannot have it. Here is a list of allowable, … Continue reading →

Toddler Food: The Grazing Tray

The grazing tray or nibble tray is a great way to get your picky eater to try new foods and eat at his or her own pace. If you are worried about your toddler getting enough food, try this trick. A grazing tray, filled with lots of nutritious choices makes it easy for your toddler to graze his, getting in more of the stuff he needs without you having to beg, beg, beg or spend the entire day at the table. It avoids putting unhealthy emphasis on food and engaging toddler battles of will. Basically, you provide a variety of … Continue reading →